FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Complete Top 25 Rankings

May 24, 2010-- North Central College heads into this week's NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field National Championships ranked second nationally in the final installment of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Team Rankings, released Monday.

The Cardinals amassed 154.80 points, retaining its spot as the nation's second ranked squad for the sixth-consecutive week. McMurry University sits atop the rankings, scoring 202.35 points while Whitworth University (Wash.) climbs up one spot to third with 88.77 points. Salisbury University (Md.) is fourth with 83.83 points while the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse jumps up to fifth with 82.68 points after being unranked in last week's Top 25 rankings. Augustana College is the only other College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin squad represented in the Top 25, accumulating 45.91 points for a No. 24 ranking.

This is the first year that the USTFCCCA has utilized its new formula for compiling rankings, which utilizes the NCAA Division III Outdoor National performance list and assigns points to up to 30 athletes in each event. The purpose of the rankings is to create an index that showcases the teams that have the best potential of excelling at the national championships.

North Central boasts 13 entrants across seven events at this weekend's NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championships hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio where the Cardinals will look to claim their first triple crown (cross country, indoor and outdoor track & field national titles) in school history. The Championships get underway on Thursday at 12 p.m. (Eastern Time) and run through Saturday.